KFC commits to sustainable packaging globally

KFC of Plano, Texas, has recently announced a new global sustainability commitment that all plastic-based, consumer-facing packaging will be recoverable or reusable by 2025. KFC says the goal supports its long-term plan to implement a more sustainable packaging strategy in its restaurants – by both developing and using sustainable packaging options – and builds on progress already made in some markets to eliminate plastic packaging items.

"As a global brand that operates more than 22,000 restaurants in over 135 countries, KFC is in a position to have a real impact on how the industry approaches waste and packaging management overall," says Tony Lowings, the chief executive officer of KFC. "With environmental sustainability as a core aspect of how we do business, this commitment represents a public acknowledgment of the obligation we have to address these serious issues."

To meet its goals, KFC has developed a roadmap that includes partnering with major suppliers and franchisees globally to identify plastic alternatives in each market. The restaurant chain is working on several key initiatives related to achieving these goals, including conducting an audit of current systems with franchisees to identify plastic waste reduction opportunities; partnering with suppliers to identify sustainable packaging alternatives for items like straws, plastic bags, cutlery and lids; and setting market-specific goals to reduce, reuse and recycle. KFC will support franchisees to define and implement their own sustainability agenda to address the unique needs of local markets and customers. Global markets will also continue to have their own additional local sustainability goals that vary based on local market conditions and regulations.

Several markets have already announced plans to reduce the use of certain plastics, including: KFC Singapore's intention to stop providing plastic straws and cup lids in its 84 restaurants; KFC Romania's and France's common goal to replace all plastic straws with paper; and KFC India's removal of consumer plastic bags from their restaurants and ongoing transition to sustainable alternatives for plastic cups, bowls, sporks and straws.

In addition to KFC's new plastics goal and the existing commitment by its parent company, Yum! Brands Inc., Louisville, Kentucky, to source 100 percent of fiber-based packaging from certified or recycled sources by 2020, KFC has committed to global packaging innovation by signing on as a supporting partner with NextGen Consortium. NextGen is a multi-year, multi-industry global consortium that aims to advance the design, commercialization and recovery of food packaging alternatives. Through this partnership, KFC says it hopes to identify fiber packaging solutions that are recoverable across global infrastructures.

Yum's initiative joins a growing group of companies committing to more sustainable packaging in the next decade, including Nestle of Vevey, Switzerland; Proctor & Gamble Co. of Cincinnati; and Late July Snacks of Norwalk, Connecticut.

KFC U.S. was the first major chicken chain to extend an antibiotic-free commitment to bone-in chicken. For more information about KFC's U.S. sustainability efforts across all facets of the business, visit https://www.kfc.com/about/responsibility.

Malaysia is becoming a leading destination for plastics recovered for recycling in other countries, but the country’s growing number of illegal plastics recycling plants is causing environmental issues for the country, according to a report from Florence Looi for Al Jazeera.

“The smoke and the smell from the factories was too much for us to bear,” Tan Ching Hi, an environmental activist, tells Looi in the video. “Even in the middle of the night, there was no respite.”

Looi says enforcement officials have shut down 30 factories in the Kuala Langat area, a district within Selangor, Malaysia. However, she adds, authorities say hundreds more are located throughout the country.

The industry is “fueled by Beijing’s ban on plastic waste imports into China,” Looi says. “That [ban] came into effect this year and opened up a gap in the market.”

She says from January through July of 2018, Malaysia imported more than 450,000 tons of plastic scrap, which was 40 percent more than the country imported in the whole of 2017.

Not all of the imported plastics can be recycled, Looi says, and will instead end up in landfills “at huge financial and environmental costs” or dumped and burned by unregulated plastics recyclers, which say adds is a “common practice.”

Standing before a smoldering pile of plastic, she says, “The stench here is unbearable.”

Looi says the government is reluctant to put a complete ban on plastic scrap imports for now because the industry could be worth $840 million to the country in 2019.

Malyasia's government has a plan to phase out plastic scrap imports entirely within three years, she says.

US lifts sanctions on Rusal

Reuters reports that the Trump administration lifted sanctions on Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska’s core empire, including aluminum company Rusal and its parent En+, Sunday, Jan. 27. The move was made despite a Democrat-led push to maintain them, according to the news service.

As a result, the London Metal Exchange released a notice confirming that its Special Committee has lifted the temporary conditional suspension on Rusal aluminum, meaning warranting can be resumed in respect to all Rusal metal and removing the conditions imposed by Notices 18/107 and 18/117 so members can freely enter into contracts with Rusal and its affiliates.

Effective Jan. 28, the date of the notice, the LME says the temporary conditional suspension on placing Rusal metal on warrant is lifted, adding, “this means that all Rusal metal can be placed on warrant, including metal produced: (a) prior to 6 April 2018; (b) between 6 April 2018 and the date of this Notice; and (c) after the date of this notice.”

Also as of Jan. 28, the LME notice states, “members are free to enter into contracts with Rusal or any subsidiary or affiliate of Rusal that is not a subject of sanctions, and there is no requirement to make payment into a blocked account or to provide any form of undertaking to the LME.”

According to the Reuters article, lifting the sanctions sent the Russian stock index to an all-time high, while Hong-Kong listed shares in Rusal, the world’s largest aluminum producer outside of China, rose 9 percent Jan. 28, reaching their highest price since April.

However, LME aluminum prices declined by as much as 1.4 percent after the open, Reuters reports, noting, “The sanctions had sent London aluminum to a seven-year high when they were announced in April last year amid fears of a supply squeeze.”

Following the announcement that the sanctions had been removed, Rusal said its Chairman Jean-Pierre Thomas had resigned as part of the deal to lift the U.S. sanctions, Reuters reports.

En+ Group, Rusal’s parent company, also announced the resignation of several of its board members and the appointment of new directors, which Reuters says was “a move intended to satisfy U.S. Treasury demands that the boards of both Rusal and En+ Group be made up of independent directors.”

The agreement calls for Core Industrial Solutions to provide service to M&J shredding equipment operators in England, Wales and Scotland. Metso calls Core Industrial Solutions “a highly competent service provider [that] has more than 16 years of experience in the waste recycling industry.”

Metso says it has more than 100 such recycling machines installed in the U.K.

“We have a large installed base in the U.K., and we are happy to extend our service capabilities with this agreement,” says Jens Peter Martensen, general sales manager of the Metso Waste Recycling business unit. “Complemented by Core Industrial Solutions’ expertise and commitment, our services will enable maximized plant and operational efficiency with continuous maintenance.”

SABIC Chair Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Jarbou and Vice Chair and CEO Yousef Al-Benyan, along with representatives from customers Unilever and Vinventions and supplier Plastic Energy, at the event to announce the launch of SABIC’s certified circular polymers

SABIC says it will boost its recycling presence

Saudi Arabia-based petrochemical firm SABIC says it will work in cooperation with customers Unilever, Vinventions and Walki Group to introduce International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC)-certified circular polymers in 2019, during what it calls “a market foundation stage” for the recycled-content polymers.

SABIC says its certified circular polymers will be produced in the Netherlands from a plastic scrap feedstock developed by United Kingdom-based Plastic Energy Ltd. The firm says the recycled-content polymers will “offer a drop-in alternative for customers looking at meeting the needs of various challenging applications.”

The announcement about the recycled-content polymer effort was made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in late January.

Global consumer products company Unilever, Belgium-based wine cork producer Vinventions and Finland-based packaging materials maker Walki Group will use the new polymers for a variety of consumer products starting in 2019, according to SABIC.

The certified circular polymers will be produced from a feedstock known as Tacoil, a product of Plastic Energy Ltd. created from the recycling of difficult to recycled mixed plastic scrap.

SABIC will process this feedstock on its production site in Geleen, Netherlands, and supply the resulting polymers to the three customers to be used in consumer packaging in the food, beverage, personal care and home care product sectors.

“Sustainability and reuse have been part of SABIC’s mission since its inception” says Yousef Al-Benyan, vice chair and CEO of SABIC. “Today, more than ever, sustainability is a core value that drives our advanced scientific and technological expertise and our pioneering spirit. Along with our eminent customers, we are proud to launch our certified circular polymers, which is further testament to our leadership in advancing the circular economy.”

The announcement in Davos was held in the reusable ICEhouse building constructed using SABIC materials. The ICE in ICEhouse stands for “Innovation for the Circular Economy.”